THE JAILED HEART OR THE SUBSERVIENT REASON? ...where is our faith?

Be! Awake!

I am a nobody,

You are a nobody,

But God said "Be!"

And we were thus done.

How many days have we lost,

Going to sleep as weary sinners,

But in the morning God said "Awake!",

And as believers we greeted the sun.

.......................

I spent some time with an old friend earlier this week. And he said "Don't allow your iman (faith) to enter your mind-ego." Do not be confused between the calculations of your ego, subtly disguised as moral or theological judgments to sway you from the true centre of your iman. The true core of your spirit and wherein sits the Throne of God."

"And where is that?" I asked.

"Your heart, of course. So think, but let your reason be subservient to your heart! For ultimately, there is where your iman resides."

....................

...And how many times have I allowed my heart to be jailed by my mind and ego... My conscience silenced by calculative self interest and hubris? As many nights as I have slept, perhaps? 

Pray for me, sunshine, that I might wake up a believer.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE BEST COMPLIMENT OF ALL - "I HAVEN'T QUITE FIGURED YOU OUT, LOVE..."

From sorrowful ignorance to happy understanding... that is our way

Love's True Worth

If you truly love me,

You can pay me 

The ultimate compliment

And acknowledge 

That you don't really

Know me at all...

................

Don't you know me at all? How many times in your life has someone misjudged you and caused you hurt? Whether it is your father or mother, your son or daughter, your wife or husband, your bf or gf, and even your best friend? How many times have you wished that he or she did not assume you felt so, or you thought that way, or that you are insensitive, or perhaps overly sensitive? How often have you felt, "Oh come on... we have slept in the same bed, drank from the same cup and ate from the same bowl, we have gone through thick and thin together... we have faced the world and helped each other... and yet, how can he feel that way towards me now? Doesn't he know me at all?!"

I am just a flower? You don't understand me at all, my love...

No, you don't actually. When you put inter-human relationship side by side with humanity's relationship with the Divine God, it is quite interesting that the same risk (called the mother-of-all-assumptions) of thinking that you truly know someone is the same as between members of the human race and as between humanity and our One God. For God, in the lore of Islam as taught by the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) has undoubtedly warned humanity that His Essence is quite simply unknowable to mere creations. Again and again, although God has encouraged, nay indeed required humanity to come to know Him, through observation of the physical Universe and the Hidden Universe that is Man himself, the Lord has often reminded humanity that He, aka God, in the absoluteness of His being, is actually beyond the contemplation of mere creatures of His making. 

Speculations of the mind and the ego. What we may understand of God's divine attributes and names are really just what God chooses to show us. Beyond that is mere guesswork and speculation of our mental faculties and our ego - for our ego is quite naturally hopeless in accepting that anything is bigger than it. Even God.

Divine Adab. So I believe that what God requires of us, we must also make some show of it for our brothers and sisters in humanity. Even our wives and husbands. Even our sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. This is the courtly manners ( the Divine Adab) that God is trying to teach us - for our own safety and happiness within our circles of friends and family. 

But I certainly know you, o' Man! Of course, one crucial difference is in the Divine Adab between Man and God, God certainly knows us - every nook and cranny, every hollow, peak and canyon of our physical and spiritual lands that makes up 'you' and 'me'. You cannot really say unto God in frustration, "Don't you know me, God?" For someone tells me now that God will simply answer - 

You despair because you 

Do not know Me well enough,

And though you have lived all

Your life in that mortal skin of yours,

You have barely begun to

Understand even yourself.

And why struggle alone, when I have sent

To your aid, My Most Beloved Muhammad,

His Companions and His Saints to ease

Your passing from sorrowful ignorance

To happy understanding?

.......................

Have a beautiful Sunday, sunshine. May today bring you better understanding of our God, and of His magnificent and subtle plans for you. And as for that beloved person beside you now... do not imagine that you can encompass his/her entire scope of being... for like yourself, he/she too is naught but a drop in a drop in a drop in God's unimaginable Mercy Oceans.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way  

It is only 8 in the morning and I am already tired - Rumi & Unity

We are the refuge.

The mosque of the heart,

The temple of mercy,

The church of love,

The synagogue of truth,

A prayer wheel always turning,

A candle always alight,

A fast unbroken,

A sermon burning bright…

In the tolling of the church bells,

In the calling of the muezzin.

It has been a most tiring day, and it is only 8 in the morning! I will see you, sunshine, at the threshold of Rumi's zawiya. Everyone loves Rumi and his poetry, and if they don't then they are not speaking from the State of Unity, and should thus remain silent.

But they are not gonna keep silent. These politicians and preachers of hate and hubris will always have their say. It is all over in the mass media and the internet. Be careful, my friends, of the thoughts and words that you let into your mind. Let your heart and conscience always be the gatekeeper of your inner contemplation!

Have a perfectly wonderful day, pet. Thank you for dropping by.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The House of Ego - Your Ungrateful Friend and Teacher...

17. House of Ego

Your ego is an ingrate.

Having ridden you

To despair’s end,

You run to his house begging entry,

“O’ ego! Give me shelter and rest, please”

In a furtive voice behind the door he replies;

“Go away! You are carrying the stink of your conscience.

Come back once you have forgotten your guilt.

Then we can parta-aay once again!”

The ego is a cunning creature. But it can also be overpowering and as overwhelming as a volcano. The ego may come unto you furtively, sliding close to your side, whispering sweet nothings, rationalising and giving a thousand and one reasons why you ought to do what your heart tells you not to do. Or the ego may come like a tide, sweeping you in a moment of passion, masquerading as your heart, lust or greed masked in the happenstances of love.

The ego is ungrateful. But however the ego moves you, once it has completed its task, it leaves you alone to mind your broken peace, your broken heart in miserable solitude. If you come to your ego for comfort, it will turn you away like a beggar. The ego will bide its time when you have passed through your sea of sorrow and regret. And if you forget your lesson, your ego will hook you once again with its bait of pride, lust, greed, envy, hubris and self-satisfaction.

Without the ego, we cannot learn humility. I cannot tell you how to learn your lesson, for we all have our path to face our ego along different milestones in our journey. It is not one single victory or defeat that will damn our happiness in this life. It is forgetfulness. The ego has already been cowed by God Almighty. Now it is through the ego and our interaction with it that we too shall learn our own humility and servanthood. For without darkness, who will recognise light? And if there is no sour, where is the sweetness? This is what I term 'tough love'. Tough but STILL love...

One day, we shall finish our school of life, may we come out of it as good servants to God and Mankind.

Have a helpful day, sunshine. God bless.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Where is your mind? - Said Nursi, God and the Universe

88. Said Nursi revisited

Tell me that you have reached

The deepest depth of

Inner space,

And

The furthest stars

Of outer space,

Before

You tell me that God

Doesn’t exist.

Otherwise it is all

Mere conjecture,

And that, o’ my disbelieving friends,

Is a playground for your imagination.

Hehehe.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi is a famous Turkish personality. He has passed away but before he did he inspired the resurgence of Islamic thought in the days when such endeavours were against state policy in Turkey.

New Turkey. The prose above describes Said Nursi's challenge to atheists to disprove the existence of God. Or rather, not to propagate as 'fact' that God does not exist. For these were the days when Turkey underwent a secularism blitz, one of which being the promotion of atheism and disbelief in the existence of God. This included the less than cerebral banning of the turban and other traditional Turkish / Muslim attire. Young acolytes of the New Turkey were educated in the state universities and sent to towns and small villages all over the country to correct the masses's misguided belief in this God of theirs. Often they were listened to the chagrin and amusement of the villagers.

Where is your mind? During one famous exchange, the government man challenged the villagers, "If there is a god, then show him to me! Where is he?" The huddled villagers were silent for awhile until an old man stood up and asked in return, "Young man. If you have a mind, show it to me. Where is your mind?"

If you think that Islam forbids you to think, read Said Nursi's books.
For him, the freedom to think and reason things out is an essential step
in understanding our place in the Universe and our relationship
With the Maker of the Universe.

Atheists like to say that religion is bad for mankind. But it is not true, rather it is mankind who is bad for religion because we spoil religion's name by our own faults. Almost all religion approach the world in two aspects - the form and the essence, in its apparent and the hidden nature. In a manner of speaking, this physical world is really just all conjecture. The reality of this world is in its hidden essence. Thus it is for man to adjudge the good and the bad of this world. And unfortunately, if a man is bigoted, hateful, envious, greedy, false and egoistic, then sadly he will colour his perception of this world with such follies. And if he is a 'religious' man, the Atheists will say - "Look, this is what belief in God has led him to!" However, if a man is kind and loving, patient and understanding, charitable and giving, honest and merciful, then verily he would colour his perception of this world with the very Divine Attributes of God. So the Atheists have to be fair in how they weigh and judge people and their belief systems. That is all.

Oh well. That is my penny thought on this. Have a beautiful day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Throne of Love & the Tyranny of the Senses

Direct Evidence is...

Direct Evidence is what

People call what is actually hearsay,

When they hear what they themselves

Say to be the truth.

In law, hearsay basically means you coming to know of facts indirectly, through an intermediary. But even when you yourself experiences something, is it direct knowledge? After all, what can you see if your eyes do not show you? What do you hear if your ears do not choose to tell you? What would you feel - the rough earth under the sole of your feet, the tender kiss of a lover on your lips, if your skin do not inform you of such things? What sweetness can you taste if your tongue remains silent? What mathematical problems can you work out or perceive, if your mind did not recognise them for you?

The King of Love and the Tyranny of the Senses

Man have become overwrought by his own senses, 

So much so that he now thinks that his senses is king, 

And he has become a slave to a tyrant. 

The Lord is offering man servanthood, not slavery. 

The Lord is offering man mercy, not tyranny. 

The Lord is offering man love and 

Has erected a throne in the hearts 

Of all man for love to reign. 

But man has allowed his own senses 

To gainsay his heart. 

But when the heart is overruled, 

Does man not realise that 

Even his senses will make no sense at all now?

It is something to think about. No, wait. Not think. Something to feel about this lovely Sunday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

The Hidden Heart - The Antechamber of the Divine Throne

22. The Antechamber

Words are clumsy tools for expressing ideas,

And a mind cannot bear the transmission of belief.

It is the heart, the hidden heart, the Antechamber of the Throne

Wherein love is communicated and affirmed.

And where there is love, O’ seeker,

There is always belief.

Illahi Anta maqsudi wa ridaKa matlubi.

("O my God, You are my Goal and Your Good Pleasure is my Aim.")

When you are in love, you don't even have to say anything. Your eyes meet, and you know the swiftness of your lover's affection, or his/her anger. When you look at your children or your parents, how can you really put into words, years of your life with them? Your gratitude to your father and mother, and your almost painful yearning for your children to fulfill their manifest promise and good fortune? I felt that as I was dropping off Mikhail at the school gates about 30 minutes ago.

At the most intimate of moments, words become useless and it is your heart which is the proper forum of love - that most Divine gift of God to Man. Illahi Anta maqsudi qa ridaKa matlubi...

Have a precious day, sunshine. Follow your heart.

Pax Taufiqa.

Crazy and Undone in Ramadhan. Hey, it rhymes! - Prose of Ramadhan Part 75

This month, this Ramadhan (Ramadhan Verses 40)

I woke this morning,

And untied the apron strings

Of uncertainty.

I write what I write

But it is good for me to read

What others tell me.

This month, I chose solitude

But the month chose friends

For me.

This month, I chose disobedience

But the month chose penance

For me.

This month, I chose error

But the month won’t let me be,

And stoked a white fire-

Bright, luminous and steady.

The Moon that was out at night,

She saw the flame and said,

“What a beautiful light!”

I chose crazy, I chose to be undone,

And that was exactly what Ramadhan

Had done to me.

You might not believe it, sunshine, but it is the second last day of Ramadhan, and I grieve to see her go. Already in my Facebook, some of my mad friends are already writing their goodbye-see you next year-God Willing note to Ramadhan. They are the sincere and good ones, and I am ever honoured that they tolerate the company of a sinner. 

When I picked up the pen about 20 minutes ago, I did not know what would happen. I was not sure what the pen would trace and how the ink would pour from its nib. But now that it is done, I am pleased. This month of Ramadhan is special that way. Even for sinners!

Ramadhan was my shepherd...

'Tis Sunday, sunshine. Have a good one!

Pax Taufiqa.

Look! Grave-Worshippers!

I AM AN EARLY RISER. I need to, you know. Sins just don’t happen automatically and the diligent sinner needs to wake up early, say hi to the sun and plan his dastardly deeds for the day. Its 5.14am now, so perhaps you will keep me company, sunshine?

LIVELY IMAGINATION. I hope to continue my posting on the Umrah Pilgrimage later today. I have been remiss to not write about it earlier but I kinda need to get in ‘the zone’ to write about the pilgrimage. Being in ‘the zone’ just means that I have a couple of free hours to check on my travel notes, pictures and sketches I did while in Medina and Mecca. Then I have to recall the feeling of the moment. It is not too difficult, I have an extremely alive imagination. In fact my imagination is so alive I sometimes feel that it has a life all its own, exclusive to my own life.

GRAVE WORSHIPPERS! Below is a picture of me and Syful in Jerusalem, in the Maqam (shrine) of the great female Sufi saint, Rabi'ah Al-'Adawiyah (May God consecrate her secrets). This is where some Muslims will accuse us as being 'grave-worshippers'. Hehehe.

Don’t be bothered, seekers, by those who seek to challenge your authority to say what you say, for you have none and never claimed any. The numb hearts in all religion shall always denounce us as heretics and people who innovate. They will say that this is not according to the Gospel, this is not according to the Quran, this is against the teaching of the Great Gurus and against their religion. Say unto them, that you have no religion and do not wish theirs. That you are following only the Religion of God. They will say that you are confusing yourselves. Answer these hidebound clerics that in your confusion is more truth than all their conjectures of God that they sow in the cramp confines of their minds...

32. Dear Friend
Take your God, if that is your wish,
Into the cramp confines of your mind,

But my God is reflected
Upon the waves of a Sea so wide and so deep
That each drop from the Sea is more expansive
Than all Creation.

Let us fight a good fight. Let us march a good march. This Sunday morning is resounding with cries of hope and prayers. I am a sinner so I cannot lead. It is you, sunshine, who must guide me by your good example. I do not know you? If you are reading this, then surely our appointment was already set before Time, when we first met upon Mount Qaf and you told me that you loved the view from the cosmic peak. You said you saw that mankind may be worshipping in different ways. But still they worship the One God, Creator of all creation. "How right you are!" I remember thinking...

Pax Taufiqa.